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Which Scrum and Agile courses are best suited for my needs?

Last post 02:02 am April 8, 2016 by Joerg Karlinger
2 replies
S P
06:01 pm April 6, 2016

I am looking to gain some basic / foundation Scrum and Agile education certification to improve chances of being employed. I worked as a Process Improvement Manager, Transition Quality & Change Delivery Analyst, Marketing Analyst, and several other general Business Analyst. My specialty is Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma, Process Improvement, Global Supply Chain and Operations Management (and some Marketing).

I am trying to improve my chances of being hired. In my previous jobs, there was never any need to use or even know Scrum or Agile methodologies. They never came up and I haven't heard of them until I became unemployed and noticed Agile + Scrum experience (or at least education) is often required for many general or somehow specialized Business Analyst positions.

I can only afford online courses (and online examination) at the moment and am looking for credible organizations that provide such classes. However, I am not even entirely sure that the most basic courses, exam, and certification in Scrum and Agile is the best course of action.

I came up with a list of questions and inquiries:
- What would you suggest in my situation?
- Most employers seek Scrum and Agile experience, which I do not have. Is there a way to make such experience possible? For example, many companies seek Business Analysts with knowledge in SQL, which I have, and experience, which I do not have. To compensate for the lack of experience, I created a large and complex (though easy to use) SQL databases of 100's of my and my family's childhood photos. The content doesn't matter because skills is what I want to demonstrate by allowing them to look at my work. Can I do something similar for Scrum and/or Agile methodologies?
- Which online course, exam, and certification providers are credible and/or known by many employers?
- How hard are the basic online course exams? I have passed Six Sigma Green Belt exam for Sonoco Corporation while in college and it was cake.
- This site is dedicated to Scrum, but Scrum education and experience is often requested alone with Agile education and experience. Is there a similar forum dedicated to Agile? I have the same exact questions about Agile (regarding online courses, exams, certifications, etc.) as I do about Scrum.
- Are there any other frequent and/or important certifications I should look into to increase my chances of employment as a general/generic or specialized Business Analyst? I don't know programming/coding, except for some SQL...



I would really appreciate any answers to any of my questions and/or any feedback anyone can provide. Thank you!

Andrzej Zińczuk
03:38 pm April 7, 2016

The best way to gather some kind of knowledge is to read through scrum guide couple of times. Couple of books from Ken Schwaber, Jeff Sutherland or Mike Cohn. After this you should have some kind of feeling what is it all about. Having cerfiticate may increase you chance to be hired and I believe more is having right attitude and correct thinking about how complex software should be developed. Good luck.

Joerg Karlinger
02:02 am April 8, 2016

Hi Sergey,

reading the scrum guide, books, articles, taking part in forum discussions will help. Taking an exam is possible then and might increase your chances.

But, to be honest I wouldn't hire a guy with no experience in the field for certain jobs like a scrum master position. So in my opnion the only way to get this experience is to work agile with a team. Also for yourself: Only there you will find out if this really fits to you.

I keep my fingers crossed for you that you get a chance to practise...

Cheers
Joerg

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